Working in the style of an artist
Studying an artist properly means borrowing their decisions, not copying their picture.
Part of your national curriculum
- Developing ideas: Use a range of techniques and media, including painting, to develop and refine their ideas
- Artists and context: Understand about the history of art, craft, design and architecture, including periods, styles and major movements from ancient times up to the present day
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Develop ideas through investigation of others' work
Key learning points
- • Isolate the decisions
- • Document the process
This lesson at a glance
- 30 minutes
- 9 parts to scroll through
- 3 quick checks
- Marked quiz at the end
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
Watch & discover
Part 1 of 9
Watch first
Working in the style of an artist
An English teaching video on this topic from Little Art Talks. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.
In a nutshell
Develop ideas through investigation of others' work
Explore the idea
Part 2 of 9
Learn
Isolate the decisions
What palette? What mark-making? What subject and viewpoint? Write three rules from the artist's work, then apply them to your own subject.
Explore the idea
Part 3 of 9
Learn
Document the process
Sketchbook pages showing trials, annotations and rejected versions carry as much credit as the final piece.
Quick check
Part 4 of 9
Quick check
Studying an artist well means…
Quick check
Part 5 of 9
Quick check
Sketchbook trials are…
Quick check
Part 6 of 9
Quick check
Three self-set rules help by…
Challenge round
Part 7 of 9
Game · Sort it
Which of these are true?
Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.
True
Not true
Mastery quiz
Part 8 of 9
Marked quiz
End of lesson quiz: Working in the style of an artist
3 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.
1. Studying an artist well means…
2. Sketchbook trials are…
3. Three self-set rules help by…
Lesson round-up
Part 9 of 9
Lesson round-up
Ready when you are
Quiz score
Not sat
Games
Not played
Points this lesson
0
Best run
0 in a row
Luna: 0 out of 3 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?
Ask LunaDo the work
Your written work for this lesson
This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.
Reading a portrait
Artists make choices before they make marks. A sitter placed high in the frame looks powerful; the same sitter low in the frame looks small. Light falling from one side sculpts a face into shadow and bone; flat light makes it open and plain.
Objects do work too. A book says learning, a dog says loyalty, a wilting flower says time passing. Viewers in the past read these signs as easily as we read a logo.
When you look at a portrait, ask three questions: where is the light coming from, what has the artist put in the sitter's hands, and where am I standing — above, below, or level with them?
Written for Good Learning Co.
Reading questions
- Choose a portrait and answer the article's three questions about it.
- Explain how you would light a portrait to make someone look kind.
- Plan your own portrait, listing two objects you would include and what each one says.
Sketchbook page
DiagramMake your own piece, then photograph it for your sketchbook page.
1 finished piece
Annotation
WritingWrite around your work: what you tried, what worked, what you would change.
6 sentences
Saved as you type.
Part 1 of 9 · Watch & discover
How this is going
- Not looked at yet
Use a range of techniques and media, including painting, to develop and refine their ideas
- Not looked at yet
Understand about the history of art, craft, design and architecture, including periods, styles and major movements from ancient times up to the present day